On Friday 15 February, the permanent representatives of the Member States were unable to agree on resuming work in trilogue with the European Parliament on two dossiers in the ‘asylum’ package, namely the dossier on “resettlement” of refugees in the EU and the Eurodac database of fingerprints of asylum seekers, both revised in 2016 by the Commission (see EUROPE 12160).
While formal work stopped last June on these two texts in the ‘asylum’ package (as well as on the dossiers on ‘reception conditions’ for asylum seekers and ‘qualifications’) when the Bulgarian Presidency tried to obtain the green light from the Member States, a majority of delegations continue to support the package approach integrating the revision of the Dublin Regulation (on responsibilities in processing asylum applications) and refused once again to formally resume work on the texts with the Parliament on an individual basis.
This connection to the revision of the Dublin Regulation, the most sensitive and least mature dossier, thus prohibits any validation of the other more advanced texts. A majority of Member States therefore refused on Friday to authorise the Romanian Presidency of the Council to organise new trilogues, two sources confirmed.
Several technical and substantive amendments have been made in recent months to these two texts at the Council level; for example, in the 'resettlement' regulation, changes concerning the question of 'the strategic use of resettlement' or considerations on 'prospects for integration'. During this period, informal contacts were also made with Parliament. A trilogue meeting was intended to put these amendments back on the table.
But the majority of Member States stopped these efforts on Friday, and the current stalemate in the revision of the Dublin Regulation does not suggest that the other texts in the ‘asylum’ package will soon be unblocked. It is now up to the Romanian Presidency to decide on the way forward. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)